Greenlight’s long-awaited Dodge Challenger arrives

It seems like forever ago (can it really be two years?) that a roster of new Greenlight castings was announced. Goodies like mid-’70s Trans Ams and Fox-body Mustangs and Dodge Challengers were announced and then… nothing. Economy? Distribution? Who knows. But new models have, at long last, started to trickle into stores, and our hunger is slowly being sated. First was the Fox-body Mustang: We’ve seen an LX coupe in multiple police liveries and a GT hatchback thus far. And next up on the where-did-they-go list: the Dodge Challenger.

The die-cast world will not be short of E-body Mopars anytime soon; shoot, Hot Wheels launched one in their $1 line earlier this year. Yet Greenlight’s offering, seen here in 340 T/A form painted Petty Blue, offers excellent detailing throughout. The blue paint is evenly applied, the silver hood pins are (mercifully) tampo’ed onto the hood (instead of engraved, which just ends up looking odd), the white tire lettering is so tiny you need a jeweler’s loupe to see it, and the black rear spoiler is a separate piece, not molded in. The grille offers good depth, even if the black paint covers up some of the fine grille-bar detail, and all the tampos appear well enough. The picture makes the silver around the windows look a little out-of-scale, but it registers far better live and in person. And the chassis is well-engraved, featuring front and rear suspension and driveline details – though it represents a standard dual-exhaust chassis, rather than the side-exit-exhaust that 340 T/As came with. Open the hood, and an orange engine with correct six-barrel oval air cleaner (painted black around the edge) greets you. The chromed Rallye wheels seem a little bright, but the engraving details are solid. And we love its stance: It’s got a low, menacing crouch that seems in line with the actual car. Usually, there’s a small compromise in stance so that the toy’s wheels can roll; we’re not sure what happened here, but the Greenlight’s wheels roll AND the stance is on the money.

This example was found at ToysRus, as part of the Mecum Auction series (hence the SOLD sticker in the windshield); there was also a purple Challenger in a Route 66-themed box set. Keep in mind, this is just the first version. We’ll be very surprised if we don’t see Hemi, R/T and other sporting Challenger variations, both 1970 and 1971, based on this tooling in the near future.